Did Barack Obama Try To Get The Phone Number Of The Head Of The German Bundesbank?

SPIEGEL: Mr. Weidmann, US President Barack Obama
reportedly asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for your phone number. Has he
already called you?

Weidmann: I haven't received a call from
President Obama. I occasionally talk on the phone with US
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, though. It's an important
part of my job to promote the positions of the Bundesbank during
conversations with monetary and financial policy makers from
around the world.

A few quick points on this:

For American audiences totally unfamiliar with the story in
Europe, Jens Weidmann (like all top German economists) is
famously opposed to any kind of central bank backstopping of
sovereign debt. The premise of the question is that Obama -- who
wants the crisis to go away ASAP -- thought he could maybe get
Wiedmann to come around.

We don't know what "report" Der Spiegel is referencing here.
Maybe it's just German gossip?

If Tim Geithner can get through to Jens Wiedmann,
does Obama really need to ask Angela Merkel for his phone number.

Would Obama really think that he could sway Weidmann? That
seems impossible.

Strange, but fascinating.

As for the rest of the contents of the interview, Weidmann is
(surprise!) not so keen on the ECB buying up bonds of Eurozone
nations.

Here's a key chunk of that:

Weidmann: I also see no immediate threat of
inflation. But if monetary policy allows itself to be used as a
comprehensive political problem solver, its real objective
threatens to recede increasingly into the background. Stable
prices not only ensure that the market economy works better. They
also create a foundation that companies looking to invest can use
to make reliable calculations. They protect the financial assets
of savers. They ensure that people can still live from their
income tomorrow. In that respect, a stability-oriented policy is
the best social policy.

SPIEGEL: That's no different in the US.
Nonetheless, to combat the financial and economic crisis, the US
Federal Reserve has acquired large quantities of US government
bonds without causing much concern. Doesn't that influence your
thinking at all?

Weidmann: The comparison is misleading. The Fed
is not bailing out a cash-strapped country. It's also not
distributing risks among the taxpayers of individual countries.
It's purchasing bonds issued by a central government with an
excellent credit rating. It doesn't touch Californian bonds or
bonds from other US states. That's completely different from what
we have in Europe.

SPIEGEL: How so?

Weidmann: When the central banks of the euro
zone purchase the sovereign bonds of individual countries, these
bonds end up on the Eurosystem's balance sheet. Ultimately the
taxpayers of all other countries have to take responsibility for
this. In democracies, it's the parliaments that should decide on
such a far-reaching collectivization of risks, and not the
central banks. Europe is proud of its democratic principles; they
characterize European identity. That's something else that we
should bear in mind.